TVSquad

Kim Cattrall is hot. Hot as in busy as well as in looking good. She's also smart, funny, observant and remarkably candid. Recently, I spoke with her for TV Squad about the success of the Sex & the City movie, her new HBO project Sensitive Skin, and a whole lot of other things, including Star Trek, aging, Universal TV in the 1970s and more.

Allison Waldman: When Sex & the City ended, you didn't want to do the movie. Now it's done and it's a huge success.

Kim Cattrall: It's extraordinary. I look back four years ago when this was a runaway idea, I just did not feel ready to do it. We had reached such a high point, I wasn't sure I had anything else to say. I also had incredible personal challenges. My marriage was coming apart, also, my dad was diagnosed with dementia. I really needed a time out.

AW: How did the movie come back around?

KC: Michael Patrick King called and said, 'I'm writing something and I think you're going to love it. ...I think you were right to say no when you did because of whatever reasons you had.' See, I had never been public about my reasons I felt that it was nobody's business.

There hasn't been much information leaked from the set of the new Star Trek movie, but that isn't from lack of fans trying.

My favorite part of this TV Guide interview with Leonard Nimoy and Zachery Quinto (who both play Spock in the film somehow - I'm sure it involves time travel and science) is when Quinto reveals that one day during shooting, director JJ Abrams took out his cell phone and showed Quinto a photo that was on the web. A photo of the very scene they were currently shooting that day, in that very room! Personally, at that point, I would have ordered the doors locked and looked around and see who it could have been.

In this business we call show, there are those people who never let us forget that they are involved to make money. Luckily, those people often occupy the off camera part of the business and let the performers worry about making art. Meanwhile, the business types sit back and try to think up ways they can make more money off of the performers. One of the most insidious ways is to appeal to the star's ego and convince them to make a recording. What follows are some of the best -- and by "best," I mean "WTF?"

Phyllis Diller
"You're Different"
Most people today recognize he name Phyllis Diller but have no idea why she was famous, however if they watch this clip, they can be sure that it isn't for singing.

The Nowhere Man himself has joined the big-screen Star Trek movie.

Bruce Greenwood will play Christopher Pike, the eventually-wheelchair bound first captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise.* You might remember the character of Captain Pike from the original pilot of Star Trek (before William Shatner joined the show), and then the two-part episode made from the original pilot, "The Menagerie." By that time, Pike was in a wheelchair, trapped on some planet led by aliens with giant heads. Jeffrey Hunter played him on the TV show.

It seems like all the geekiest blogs buzz with excitement whenever there's news about the new Star Trek movie. Yes, that includes us. The film sounds cool and all, but I think the biggest reaction I have had is when I silently nodded with approval upon hearing that Heroes' Zachary Quinto would be playing Spock. That is, until now.

Variety is reporting that Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz star Simon Pegg is going to play Scotty in the upcoming feature. Simon Pegg! Insert obligatory "beam him up" joke here.

There is a certain amateurish charm to most YouTube fanvids, especially when they have to do with unconventional romances between characters that aren't explicitly stated in the show's canon. Usually the videos consist of poorly chosen clips from various episodes, cut together to kind of, sort of look like knowing glances and to kind of, sort of feel like sexual tension. However, every once in a while, I stumble across a fanvid so outrageously well-done that I am compelled to share with everyone I know, fans and non-fans alike.

While there are still a couple of panels left to go, things are definitely winding down at the Comic-Con. Stormtroopers are starting to smell a little rank, and the Junior Justice League isn't looking nearly as plucky. As the dust settles and the marketing teams rest their weary heads, what news items are we left with from Ye Old Comic-Con?

The best TV-related news items, in no particular order, follow:

Alright, kids. The Paramount panel. This is what Comic-Con is all about - big, marketing juggernauts produced by massive corporations. I'm sure a handful of indie comic producers turn in their graves at the thought of what Comic-Con has become, but you can't deny that it's all about the passion. There's something beautiful and deeply sincere about true fans connecting with the creators of their obsessions. The love of good storytelling and making life more bearable through sharing in an aesthetic experience can't be besmirched by even the crassest of capitalist gestures, and there's free stuff. Nothing wrong with that.

The Paramount panel was loaded with tidbits - mostly for the film, not TV, buff. (You can check out TV Squad and Cinematical scribe Kevin Kelly's live blog from this afternoon's event here.) However, some of our TV friends have made the jump to the big screen - SNL's Andy Samberg, Alias and Lost creator J.J. Abrams and Heroes' Zachary Quinto.

Rumors are still abound as to who is playing whom in the upcoming Star Trek prequel from Lost and Alias creator JJ Abrams, but according to the NY Post, at least one man is out: William Shatner. Despite wanting a cameo role in the prequel, Shatner was not offered one. That's kind of a bummer, but what makes it even moreso, if the rumors are true (and it's the Post, so I'm skeptical), is that Leonard "Spock" Nimoy was offered a cameo role, instead.

Ostensibly, it seems unfair to give Nimoy a brief role and shut Shatner out completely, but having no idea the context of Nimoy's supposed cameo, it's tough to have an opinion about it one way or the other. Perhaps the cameo situation is such that it would only work with Nimoy and not Shatner --some kind of clever inside joke-- but I guess we won't know until the movie comes out.

[via Dark Horizons]

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Dina Lohan is trying for her own reality show, all about her role in pushing the two younger Lohan siblings into entertainment careers.
  
• Leonard Nimoy has a new interest, and he really needs to keep the whole "Spock image" out of it.
  
• Rumors, rumors. Will American Idol judges Randy and Paula be replaced by Britney Spears?
  

The video's embedded below, or you can also subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, now you download the file directly again!

On February 19 at 9:00 p.m., Leonard Nimoy will host Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier on the History Channel. The documentary will look back on the franchise's forty-year history and feature interviews with several actors from various Star Trek series including Avery Brooks (Deep Space Nine), Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek Voyager) and Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation).

The special will also feature footage from Christie's auction of Star Trek memorabilia, costumes, props and set pieces from last October that took in over seven million dollars.

Unfortunately, our resident Star Trek insider Wil Wheaton won't be part of the documentary. No matter, at least here you can read his Star Trek: The Next Generation reviews, which are probably funnier than anything you'll see in this new special. What's equally as upsetting as Wil getting the shaft is that I also wasn't asked to participate in the documentary, despite being Nichelle Nichols' stunt double* on the original Star Trek.

*I was never Nichelle Nichols' stunt double.

Laura Goodwin (for some reason referred to as a man in this digg) has created an exhaustive web shrine to female characters from the original Star Trek -- complete with photos and descriptions of each. Her point (not that she needs to have one) is to show that Trek women were more than just "babes" for Kirk to tussle with. Janice Rand is described as "a real trooper."

Characters are divided into categories like "Starfleet Heroines," "Villains and Femme Fatales," and my favorite "They Were Not Women," -- a necessary category for the inclusion androids, shape changers, phantasms, etc. A handy guide to bookmark in case you happen to forget what say, Yeoman Mears from "The Galileo Seven", or Yeoman Smith (pictured), and need to access that information right away. I love it.

There has been buzz around the industry for months, but now CBS and Paramount have made it official: Star Trek: The Animated Series is coming to DVD on November 21. Check out the cool box!

The set will have a ton of extras too, including several features, a photo gallery, show history, wallpapers, AIM icons, and text (?) commentaries from behind the scenes folks.

This is great news, because people have been waiting for this show to come out for a long time. And it happens to be not just a cartoon version of a classic show, but one that actually stands on its own as a well-done, solid, dare I say even intelligent series. (Side note: I love the pic on the right. It makes it seem that the whole cast got together for a cast photo shoot, when in reality it's just a drawing, heh.)

Fans have been waiting for this news for a long, long time, and now it looks like it's going to happen. Paramount has released artwork for the DVD set of the acclaimed Star Trek: The Animated Series. They haven't announced a release date for the set yet, but just the fact that it's coming out is cause for joy.

ST: TAS was one of those rare cartoons that managed to live up to its live-action counterpart. Maybe it was the fact that they used most of the voices from the original series, but it was also because they didn't dumb down the plots. It was a rather intelligent cartoon. Hell, even the theme song was great.

George Takei is a busy guy. Believe it or not, of all the interviews I've done, his had the most regimented procedure: I was supposed to call him and immediately begin the interview, because he had other interviews scheduled around mine.

Apparently, his itinerary has been a bit crowded lately. And for that, Takei -- best known for playing Mr. Sulu on the classic series Star Trek -- can thank the combination of his public coming out late last year and his addition to Howard Stern's Sirius satellite show as its announcer. In fact, the 69-year-old actor's voice was the first one that people heard when Howard first debuted in January. He spent the entire first week there telling graphic stories about his first sexual encounters, cutting goofy IDs, and trading wise-ass remarks with sidekick Artie Lange. He also got pranked not once, not twice, but three times by the crew: once with a David Letterman impersonator and twice with an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator. As always, though, he was a good sport, giving the audience his trademark halting laugh whenever he got scammed.

Since the Governator vetoed the state's same-sex marriage bill, Takei has spoken out passionately for gay rights. He is currently on a speaking tour for the Human Rights Campaign he has dubbed an "Equality Trek". So between that, his appearances at Trek conventions, and his negotiations to return to the Stern show, it's a wonder he has time to talk to any reporters at all.

In our conversation (after the jump), George and I talked about the speaking tour, Howard, his guest turn on Will & Grace, and his appearance as Sulu on a web-only Star Trek series. Oh, and I couldn't leave without asking him about Bill Shatner at least once.

Because Takei needs to be heard as much as he needs to be read (I mean... that laugh!), I've made the audio version of the interview available for download. It's available here.